U.N. BIG POWERS OK SYRIAN ARMS RESOLUTION

The United Nations’ five big powers reached agreement Thursday on a legally binding U.N. Security Council resolution that would require Syria to dismantle its once-secret chemical weapons program or face the threat of unspecified measures, according to senior U.S. and Russian officials.

The deal reached by Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China followed several days of high-level talks in New York. Those talks culminated Thursday afternoon with a face-to-face meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“We did reach agreement with respect to the resolution; we’re now doing final work putting that language together,” Kerry said after the meeting. “It’s our hope now that . . . this resolution can now give life hopefully to the removal and destruction of chemical weapons in Syria.”

“I think we reached an understanding with the U.S.,” Lavrov told reporters Thursday night at the United Nations.

The draft resolution based on that accord says that if the Syrian government or the rebels fail to comply with their obligations to rid the country of chemical weapons, the Security Council “will impose measures under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter,” which is generally invoked to impose sanctions or approve the use of force. But considering such measures would require the passage of an additional resolution in the Security Council, where Russia is expected to block any proposal for the use of force and resist the imposition of stiff sanctions.